Nine weeks into 2013, the North American box office is down significantly from last year (-19%).  But it’s more interesting when we look back at the a longer period — in this case, the last six years.  Half of those years resemble this year, and the other half resemble “up” years like 2012.  Those up […]

Updated International Box Office tracking chart:

  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have IRON MAN 3 (Disney) dropping just 6% on Saturday to $64M.  If that number holds, it’s quite a good hold for a blockbuster of this magnitude–in comparison, The Avengers fell 14% on its second day, and Iron Man 2 went down 11%.  (The original Iron Man actually rose 6% on its […]

The 22nd weekend of the year is looking like a very good $186 million for the top 12 films, up 30% or more from the same weekend in previous years.    Opening at over 3,000 theaters Friday (a slightly above average theater count), After Earth from Sony and starring Will and Jaden Smith should average $12,100 […]

The 26th weekend of the year (halfway through already!) is looking like an on-target $189 million for the top 12 films, within a few percentage points of the comparable weekend the last few years.     Opening at around 3,000 3,222 theaters Friday (somewhat above the average 2,886 theater count for opening weekend wide releases), White […]

The 29th weekend of the year is looking like $178 million for the top 12 films, about normal for this weekend on average the past few years but down significantly from last year, which was dominated by the opening of The Dark Knight Rises and the madness of the theater shooting in suburban Denver. Opening at […]

  OPENINGS:  With a $27.4M start, 2 GUNS (Universal) is probably headed for $85M in the US, a fair if unexciting return for a movie that claims to have (post-tax credits) a $61M production budget.  With Universal taking its marketing expenses and distribution fees off the top, there won’t be much profit for financiers Emmett-Furia […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #35 of 2013 looks like a very decent $95 million for the top 12 films, up 16% from the average Friday-Sunday portion of recent Labor Day weekends.  One Direction: All of Us and the out-of-nowhere Instructions Not Included opened well, and continued strength from The Butler and We’re the Millers […]